The Days Inn is nestled in between a McDonald's and an IHOP. There are two shopping malls within a 20-minute walk, and the further of the two has a Target and a pretty good all-you-can-eat buffet. Here is a map of the running/biking trail that goes right past the front door of the hotel: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/maps/bikepaths_dudley.gif As you can tell by the fact that I'm posting this, there is free wireless internet. I asked Andy his opinion of the motel, and his verbatim response: "It's not crappy". The 7-day MBTA pass that you can use on any bus or subway is $15; if you're not going to be here as long as we are, it might not be worth it unless you just want to avoid the hassle of buying multiple tickets. Getting from the Providence airport to the motel was something of an adventure using RIPTA, commuter line, subway and bus while hauling our luggage. It's a good thing we packed light!

Hmmm....wireless internet. Now I am tempted to bring my laptop. Can I survive three days without online access? 20 minutes from Target sounds great. That will be handy. How close is the nearest subway stop?

If you can't survive, there will be 2 internet stations (my laptop and Andy's) in room 224. Choice of PC or Mac! That 20 minutes is for walkers; it will be considerably faster by car. We haven't tried walking to the nearest stop on the green line, but Andy thinks it's 2.1 miles. We'll get back to you on that as soon as we finish our morning run. Gotta go check out that trail!

Any idea how far away the Harvard station is on the red line? It looks almost as close and might be easier to get to. Looking forward to your scouting report of the running trail.

Harvard station is also 2.1 miles. We're discovering that the MBTA web site (mbta.com) might not be working very well; it's giving weird advice on how to get places on race day, yet it explicitly states that the red line will be running as usual on the 21st. I'm looking forward to getting a bigger map of the subway system than the one in the BAA welcome booklet; the writing is too small for lasik-impaired 50-year-olds. :-/ When given the option to go on the walking versus the biking trails along the Charles River, take the biking trails. The walking trails, though parially paved, can be very rough because of roots growing through them.

Trail Blazer Hugh, feel free to post any other information that you think might be helpful (or interesting) for those of us who will be coming up over the next three days.

As soon as you can, get a map of the bus routes. It's called the "Official Public Transit System Map". The ubiquitous stylized map of the subway system is not much help for those of us who are not near the stops. While it is easier to walk to the green line's Boston College station, it is faster to get to (the?) Boston Common via the red line's Harvard station because the red line has 6 stops but the green line has 26. Here is a link to the map from the Days Inn to the Harvard Station: http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ma/boston/431739970 Our current plan for Monday morning is to depart for Harvard Station on foot around 5:30 a.m. For planning purposes, know how long it takes you to walk 2.3 miles and add 12 minutes for the subway trip.

Our current plan for Monday morning is to depart for Harvard Station on foot around 5:30 a.m. For planning purposes, know how long it takes you to walk 2.3 miles and add 12 minutes for the subway trip.

Scratch that. You can catch the 64 bus just outside the hotel at 5:54 AM on Monday morning, get to the Central Square Station by 6:07 AM, catch the red line going south at 6:20 AM, and you'll be at Boston Common by 6:30. We're getting better at figuring out the bus schedule. We took a bus combination back from Harvard Station tonight that got us back to the hotel with only 20 minutes of walking, and we'll try the route above tomorrow.